Strategic Maneuvers - Jemma Westbrook Page 0,67
up.”
“I’m not sure he will be interested in the front gate at this point.” Pierce scanned the feeds. “If he didn’t take immediate advantage I would say the front gate is no longer going to be his primary target.”
“What is his primary target?” Bess turned from the wall she’d been staring at. “You? Amelia? The money? Drugs?” She rested the hand holding the marker against one side of her head. “He’s got a lot going on and it’s making my head hurt.”
“That’s just pregnancy.” Heidi spun to look at the wall, her eyes squinting. “Did you add another line on there?”
Bess glanced over her shoulder at the wall. “Yeah. I figured out how Chandler and Howard initially got involved with Chris.” She pointed to a section of the map of names and lines. “My dad hired a private investigator to look into Chris right when he first started acting crazy, but the guy who eventually did the job was not who he tried to hire first.” She poked the marker at a familiar name. “He spoke with someone from this company first but was told they couldn’t find anything.”
Investigative Resources
Mona’s lips turned down at the edges. “I’d threaten to kill them if they weren’t both already dead.”
“We don’t know for sure Chandler’s dead.” Eva crossed her arms. “We could still get to kill him.”
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up.” Heidi leaned back to shoot Eva a regretful look. “If Vincent thinks he’s dead he’s probably good and dead.” She smiled. “On the plus side he probably got killed because you started to figure out what was going on, so you kinda got to kill him after all.”
Lennie sat at her desk, wide dark eyes moving around the room. “I think I changed my mind about all of this.”
Heidi waved one hand Lennie’s way. “You’ll get used to it.”
Mona took a few slow steps toward the organized, but still chaotic wall. “So Chris was working with Anthony first.” She tilted her head. “How are they connected?”
“Chris had a falling out with his father right before we met. The private investigator my father ultimately hired thinks he was dating me in the hopes that marrying into a well-off family would help him get back into his father’s good graces.”
“Why did they have a falling out?” Pierce read across the names, each time hanging up at Chris Snyder Jr. It sounded so familiar.
And not in a recent way.
“His father is a conservative senator. Chris was part of a group of guys who ended up in trouble for the hazing death of another student when he was in college so his dad basically cut all ties to save his own skin.” Bess glanced at Pierce. “I didn’t know that about him when we were dating.” Her skin paled a little. “I found it out from the PI.”
“So much for Howard claiming he couldn’t find anything.” Mona grabbed a chair and scooted it toward Bess. “Sit down before you barf on the floor.”
Bess fell into the chair, taking the trash can with her. Mona snagged away the marker and went to work filling in the blanks on the wall. “So for our purposes, the first contact Anthony made was with Chris. Then at some point after that, Bessie’s father unknowingly pulled Chandler and Howard into the mix.”
“Who then sent Eva here in the hopes it would ultimately give Anthony a way inside Alaskan Security.” Harlow came to stand at the edge of the group. “Too bad for him Eva was hot for Brock Star’s biscuits.”
“I like his gravy too.” Eva wiggled her brows. “And his—”
“We know.” Harlow said it loud enough to stop Eva’s continuing explanation. “Back to what we’re here for.”
“So once Anthony realized that plan wasn’t going to work, he decided to try to take her and ended up with more than he bargained for.” Mona started a list on a blank area of the wall.
“I’m happy to get you a whiteboard, Love.”
“Too late now.” Mona shot him a little smile over one shoulder before going back to her list of events. “That might be where he first found out about Harlow.”
“And then decided to find a little hacker of his own.” Harlow frowned. “Unfortunately he found Tod.”
“Who had an agenda of his own and was only too happy to join Anthony’s little party of psychopaths.” Mona kept writing as the women continued working out the mess he’d made.
He knew a team of women could be unbeatable. History had shown the superiority of